Gurugram: Three years after she first picked up a table tennis bat, ten-year-old Phalgun Gupta from Gurugram has emerged a national champion, winning gold in the Under-11 category at the Second National Table Tennis Ranking Tournament in Panchkula on October 9.
This year, she won the gold by in an all-Haryana girls’ final, defeating state mate Mahi Kumar 3-1. The young athlete trains under coach Mrinal Mondal, a former national-level table tennis player, at MeSoTT (Mrinal’s Elite School of Table Tennis), located at Shri Chaitanya Academy in Sector 57. The coach said Gupta also holds the second position in Haryana’s under-13 rankings and fourth in the under-15 category, competing against players older than her.
A resident of Sector 67A in Gurugram, Gupta was introduced to table tennis at six when she accompanied her parents to drop off her older brother at a table tennis coaching academy. Fascinated by the game, she began playing herself a year later. “I saw my brother play table tennis, and I was drawn towards the sport, and started playing by the age of seven. “To me, table tennis brings peace. I feel very calm and confident when I have the bat in my hand. It has helped me develop my personality and given me more confidence,” she added. Mondal has been coaching her for nearly two years.
The young player, who took up the sport after watching her older brother practise, said table tennis has become a source of calm, confidence and ambition for her. Since then there is no looking back,” Gupta told HT.
